"I’ll be breaking party lines this Super Bowl Sunday and rooting for (Tom Brady's) defeat."

I seldom watch pro football, because the gladiatorial mythology so enthralling to many football fans sickens me.

Paul Tagliabue Yearns for Hall of Fame, but Concussions Tarnish Legacy, by Michael Powell (New York Times)

We reporters can be disagreeable, and who has not uttered words he comes to regret? Let’s step past words and take a close look at Tagliabue’s role in overseeing a decade-long cover-up of the N.F.L.’s destruction of the brains of its players.

However, I understand that we all must have distractions, so as to avoid contemplating what it really means to concentrate vast sums of a nation's wealth in the hands of the 1%, and so by all means, "watch on."

Here is one Patriots fan who isn't feeling very patriotic this year.

Go Other Guys! (Why I’m Rooting for My Team to Lose this Super Bowl Sunday), by Zach Wyner (Medium)

My dad, my brother and I will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. I’m sure there will be moments when my body and mind will be in conflict. Like I said, Boston sports fandom is a hereditary trait buried deep within my DNA and there will be plenty of Patriots on that field worth pulling for.

But I know what a Patriots victory will bring: Tom Brady, the trophy toothpaste ad, smiling at the center of the grotesque circus. And I feel that, as a true fan of the Patriots, it’s my job to root for their failure with the hope that it might spare them the fetid stench of fascism — a stench that, unlike moisture in a towel, doesn’t evaporate in the Super Bowl’s bright lights.